does anyone think fight club is a little pretentious?

Started by socketlevel, December 13, 2003, 04:56:04 PM

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socketlevel

or am i the only one?  i love the game and se7ev and think he's got some good shit in him.  so i'm not just fincher bashing but did the last act of fight club seem lame to anyone else?  every good reveal in a film comes from the audience not anticipating the twist but playfuly regret not forseeing it.  the whole multiple personality thing came out of left feild.  he didn't hint at it in the rest of the film (the little frames of Pitt do not count).  he even admits this in the commentary, he originally wanted to keep pitt and norton isolated whenever they talked but found it to be too hard to acomplish.  this, in my opinion, hurt the film.  whereas something like the sixth sense was able to appropriatly handle the same delema.
the one last hit that spent you...

SHAFTR

I do enjoy Fight Club but the twist isn't set up very well.
"Talking shit about a pretty sunset
Blanketing opinions that i'll probably regret soon"

Alethia

i think fight club turned into a peice of shit at the end of the first act, but thats ok

yes i do think the ending is not handled well

SoNowThen

Fight Club was one of the last masterpieces of the 90's. It will endure.

The twist was brilliantly set-up.
Those who say that the totalitarian state of the Soviet Union was not "real" Marxism also cannot admit that one simple feature of Marxism makes totalitarianism necessary:  the rejection of civil society. Since civil society is the sphere of private activity, its abolition and replacement by political society means that nothing private remains. That is already the essence of totalitarianism; and the moralistic practice of the trendy Left, which regards everything as political and sometimes reveals its hostility to free speech, does nothing to contradict this implication.

When those who hated capital and consumption (and Jews) in the 20th century murdered some hundred million people, and the poster children for the struggle against international capitalism and America are now fanatical Islamic terrorists, this puts recent enthusiasts in an awkward position. Most of them are too dense and shameless to appreciate it, and far too many are taken in by the moralistic and paternalistic rhetoric of the Left.

NEON MERCURY

"The Twist"....that thanks to  M. N. Shamahfhdsfhgfdghd5775...has become cliched as scrambled eggs and milk......but i like fight club ..its not perfect (like Young Guns)..but it s "though provoking" and "provocative", and "gut-wrenching", and  "brilliant", and ".....nihilistic fodder for Generation X-ers"...............

ono

Quote from: SoNowThenFight Club was one of the last masterpieces of the 90's. It will endure.

The twist was brilliantly set-up.
What he said.  And though I know SoNowThen hates American Beauty, for me, it was those two films that really started to push me towards a serious interest in film.  And the scene where Tyler puts a gun to a convenience store clerk's head and tells him to go back to school in six weeks or be dead, well, that's the most any film has ever motivated me.  If you ever need motivation to live, watch Fight Club.  That's one of the reasons it's so brilliant.

As for pretentious?  All the most brilliant films have hordes of people crying "PRETENTIOUS!"  There are worse things a film can be called.  Like boring.  I'll take "pretentious" over that any day.  See also: http://www.xixax.com/viewtopic.php?t=4110&highlight=makes+pretentious

socketlevel

it's great that people have their films that inspired them to become filmmakers or at least cinephiles, but the word pretentious has never been overused.  the film relied on obvious techniques that have holes in the plot.  this is not exposed of because the filmmakers also garnered appealed to what is "cool."  and no i don't think the movie is boring, which is good, but that doesn't have anything to do with it.  you can't compare the two characteristics.
the one last hit that spent you...

Gold Trumpet

I don't think it was pretensious. I mean, the ending was to contradict any great statement on society that anyone was expecting and considering the movie answered corporate greed with the idea of people bombing some buildings, I'm kinda glad it didn't go for anything dramatic. Doesn't mean I liked the movie or the ending. The movie is too much of a style circus and the ending is a gimmick.

Weak2ndAct

Pretentious, I can handle.  Sixth grade spelling, I cannot.

socketlevel

lol, fine.  i can take the shit you fling at me.  I'll be the first to admit you're right, my spelling is horrible.  :wink: sorry, can't help it.  i think fast and therefore i type fast, you get my point anyway.  so now,  i hope you didn't think i'd shy away and shut up because of it...

but back to the interesting topic that Gold Trumpet brought up.  first off I think the pretense comes from the very fact that it is a style-fest.  It tries, just like the matrix, to be philosophical, when actually, it's a grade nine stoners' conversation.  The movie is soooo "cool" it can't even handle itself.  

and as with the ending, i think it goes one step further then what you suggest.   the ending reafirms a fascist ideal in the characters.  This is what i think PTA was talking about, it gives a irresponsible representation of these self indulgent characters (and if i'm wrong about PTA then don't just jump on that please people.  there is a bigger issue here).  they're not anti heroes, they're just pathetic.  but they're so fuckin' "cool" that their moral and ethical decisions don't matter.  We are swayed to like them based only on their charisma and witt.  fuck that.  i'd rather watch a todd stolandz movie where the characters are this horrible and we are not intended to like them.  they are that way because the filmmaker isn't trying to garner any sex appeal and there actually is a message at the end of the film.  not just cheap tricks.

if i want to see a cool film i'll go see kill bill.  it doesn't try (and fail) at being anything but a masterpiece of entertainment.  which as we should all know is.

-sl-
the one last hit that spent you...

©brad

could u please change ur avatar before i throw up all over you? i'm serious.

geez, it's christmas. can't we do w/o the head exploding avatars? get a little happiness into ur life for a change.

socketlevel

lol, are you not a fan of dawn of the dead?  it's a great movie still don't you think?  lol
the one last hit that spent you...

socketlevel

the one last hit that spent you...

MacGuffin

Quote from: socketlevelif i want to see a cool film i'll go see kill bill.  it doesn't try (and fail) at being anything but a masterpiece of entertainment.  which as we should all know is.

You reaffirmed exactly what I didn't like "Kill Bill". I'll take a film that at least tries (and succeeds), like "Fight Club," over one that plays it safe any day.
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


Skeleton FilmWorks

socketlevel

true, and so do I.  I can apreciate if a film attempts to give insights on our culture, and quite frankly i think there is not enough of this kind of cinema.  at the same time i can apreciate the escapist experience that comes with great entertainment like kill bill, although it is easier to make this kind of a film because there is no message.  the film can still work as a catharsis though.  

If you asked me what are my top ten favorite films of all time i'd probably only have a couple that are entertaining and the rest would be more important and have a deeper message.  so i think you and i are in agreement on how important cinema is mac, which i am glad.

the problem that i had with fight club (and as I previously mentioned the "matrix") is that this film is creating a phacade of intellectual and progressive cinema.  not so, fight club is entertainment (and based on the techniques mentioned above, fails to be even this) plain and simple.  It is what the Celestine Prophacy is to philosophy books;  easy answers (and sometime no answers at all) to bigger questions.  in the end, the reason why we like the characters has to do with their appeal, not the decisions they make.  In Se7en morgan freeman's character is exactly the opposit, the decisions he makes at the end of the film determine the rest of his life.  but he must do these very things to make the world better.  this is a good character.  at the end of fight club ed norton's character only cares that Pitt is out of his head.  he even says something like, "everything is going to be better now."  and then all the fucking buildings blow up!  what!, is this all he cares about!?!?!  fuck him, sure he's "sexy" and "strong" and all that but he's still a self centered fucker.  we shouldn't be on his side at that point of the movie, but fincher wants us to be.  to bad.

-sl-
the one last hit that spent you...